After their very emotional exchange, Cassius stood to leave. But he stopped long enough to give Sophie a (slightly awkward) one-armed hug and say, "let me know if I can help in any way. For Keefe or for Will." And then he pulled out his home crystal and leapt back to the Shores of Solace.
Sophie couldn't get back to the couch fast enough. She reached for Keefe's hands. Keefe--even with fresh tears forming in his eyes--managed a soft, incredulous chuckle.
"This day is definitely not going how I envisioned it."
Sophie smiled at him. "Definitely one of the weirdest, most emotionally exhausting days we've had in a long time." She looked at the time. "And it's not even dinner time yet." Then she turned back to look at Keefe, searching his handsome face.
He looked weary, and still looked terribly sad, but also looked calmer than he had before Cassius had come.
"Do you want to talk about it? Or about your dad? Or...would you rather just sit in silence and process everything?"
Keefe sighed. "Honestly, a little bit of all of those. In terms of my dad...there's not much to discuss. You've been telling me for years we needed to clear the air, address my childhood. And he's right, he can't go back and undo everything he did to me. But just knowing that he knows it was wrong, and that he's truly repentant of it, and that he cares...that heals so much of it. It's still there, but it's not this gaping wound anymore. It's just a scar."
Sophie nodded. "And...Will?" She knew Will would be okay. What worried her was whether or not Keefe would be okay.
Keefe smiled softly at Sophie and reached up, smoothing out that worry crease between her eyes. "All these years later, and I still can't get over how cute you are when you worry about me," he whispered. "Will is going to be just fine. I've known since we got Elysian's help that this ability wasn't going to be the horrible, world-changing thing I feared it would be. It won't consume him or control him. And he's a good kid. He's smart and kind and--for the record--obviously falling pretty hard for Anna." Keefe's smirk made a ghost of an appearance at that.
"Yes, he is. She seems to be falling pretty hard for him too."
"And...my dad was right. I've been so upset thinking about how it's just more fallout, more ways my mom has screwed my life up. But this isn't actually messing anything up. Not really. Him manifesting this ability isn't ruining his life. It reminds me of my trauma, but it does nothing to Will. Not unless I let it. And I won't. He's gifted and he's going to be fine. I'll show him how to switch off the ability. Train, in case he needs to use it, but the default will be for it to be turned off. Now that he knows what to expect, he'll be fine. The trauma is my burden to bear, not his."
"And I think that will fade with time. You've long since overcome it, this is just...it's like the echoes Fitz and I had. The shadowflux was gone, only the echoes remained, and they faded with time. Well, and Flori's help. But Will manifesting that ability today--when we thought we had dodged the situation--it just brought it up again. But it's just an echo of your trauma, and I'm here to help it fade."
Keefe smirked at her. "You going to sing my echoes to sleep?"
"I was thinking more about talking, like we're doing now. Or, um...distracting you. You know, like you were clearly doing earlier, when you kissed me like you thought you might die if you didn't."
"Oh, I absolutely would have died," Keefe told her, leaning in. "Kissing you definitely fixes me."
"Good answer," Sophie whispered.
"Yes, I thought so," Keefe murmured, bringing one hand up to her face and kissing her.
After a moment, he pulled away again. "Yeah, definitely fixes me," he repeated with a sweet smile.
"You okay?" Sophie asked. "Feeling any better?"
"There goes that worry crease again," Keefe whispered. And this time, instead of smoothing it with his finger, he leaned in and lightly kissed it, lingering for just a second before pulling back to look at her. "And...no, I'm not okay. But I am feeling a little better. And I will be okay."
Sophie nodded. "I believe you," she told him. But, there was still more to discuss. "Leto said he'd alter Will's schedule—and adjust your mentoring workload—to add the extra training session every week. And I asked him to alert the Council for us so we wouldn't have to deal with that today. I told him to ask them not to reach out to us until tomorrow."
Keefe sighed. "I have to name the ability now, don't I?"
"I'm sorry." She squeezed Keefe's hand, watching his face carefully. "Do you want to wait and let Will help you?"
Keefe shook his head. "I think that would just further push the point that this is new territory. I'd rather just tell him what it's called, let him feel as normal about it as possible. Besides, I may have refused to give it a name, but that doesn't mean I haven't thought about it over the years."
"You already have a name picked out?"
"Maybe. I thought 'commander' just sounded weird even though that's what I've always called them—commands. But...they're also imperative. Words spoken with authority that have to be obeyed. So I thought, maybe 'imperator'."
"Another military term like 'commander', but a bit more obscure," Sophie mused. "I think that works."
"Okay then. We'll tell them tomorrow. For now, can we just eat and go to bed? I haven't been this weary and exhausted in a long time."
So they ate a quick dinner, grabbing a bottle of Youth and a snack for Will before heading upstairs. They crept quietly into his room to leave the food on his nightstand, just in case he woke in the night, since he'd missed dinner.
He looked peaceful as he slept. Keefe lightly brushed his fingers on Will's arm and nodded at Sophie reassuringly, so she took Keefe's hand and they crept back out of the room.
"His emotions felt steady, no spikes of anything," Keefe told her as they made their way up to their bedroom.
"Good," she said. "I thought about checking his dreams for nightmares, but didn't want to do that if I didn't have to." She laughed softly. "Especially since there's a good chance he's dreaming about the way Anna kissed his cheek today. He'd be humiliated if he knew I saw him dreaming about that."
"Yes, he would," Keefe agreed. "And if this hadn't been such an awful day, I'd insist that we pretend you did just so we could embarrass him. But I guess we'll save that for another time. I swear, the way he looks at her..."
"He's got it bad," Sophie agreed.
Keefe smirked at Sophie as he took a step closer to her. "It reminds me of the way I have always looked at you," he said in a low voice. "The way I will always look at you. Even thousands of years from now." He reached for her, pulling her into his arms.
Over twenty years together, and something about Keefe--not only his insanely good looks, but also the very way he talked to her and looked at her--and the touch of his hand--still made Sophie's world get very floaty and fluttery.
Not to mention the heat that coursed through her...
She hoped it would stay that way forever.
Keefe smirked at her as though he knew what she were thinking. "Glad to know even when I'm barely keeping it together, I still have this effect on you."
"Shut up and kiss me already," Sophie whispered.
Keefe raised his eyebrows, the seductive look on his face downright intoxicating. "Lady Fos-Boss feeling extra bossy today. And I'm definitely here for it."
And with that, he picked her up--Sophie squealing in surprise--and carried her to the bed.
They both woke early the next morning, arms still wrapped around each other.
"How are you this morning?" Sophie asked him quietly. He looked more peaceful, much less frantic than he had all day yesterday, but also still looked tired.
Keefe pulled Sophie even closer and kissed her before answering. "Wishing I didn't have to get out of this bed and face the day," he admitted. "Especially since I feel like I spent half the night shaking uncontrollably." He grimaced.
And he had, indeed, dealt with some shock.
Even after being intimate, and the peace that inevitably followed, he had been on the verge of sleep when his body started trembling, just like it had done after Gisela's memory break.
So Sophie held him. She remembered the night they spent under Calla's Panakes tree, when she had been so terrified to let him out of her sight after her nightmare. She remembered the way he held her and whispered to her. She had fallen asleep to him tenderly running his fingers through her hair and to the sound of his voice repeatedly telling her that he loved her. And that he was there for her.
And so she did the same for him. She held him tightly, trying to hold him together even while his body tried to fall apart. She whispered how deeply she loved him, and how he was an amazing father, and how everything was going to be okay. And finally, the trembling had stopped and they had both fallen asleep.
"It wasn't half the night," Sophie told him. "But I don't blame you for being tired."
Keefe shrugged. "I can sleep tonight. The best thing I can do right now is face the day. Will and I begin training today. I think actively working on gaining control of his ability will make it feel a lot better."
"So, does that mean you're ready to get out of bed and, as you said, 'face the day'?"
But Keefe shook his head, fire in his eyes again. "Not quite yet. Kissing you fixes me, remember? And...so do other things."
Sophie grinned at him. "Goodness, I love you," she whispered, sinking blissfully into his embrace as he kissed her again.